Mississippi Turning

...James Young, a 53-year-old minister, narrowly defeated incumbent Mayor Rayburn Waddell by a 64 vote margin to become the first African American mayor in the town's history.

...Philadelphia, Mississippi, a mostly white city of 7,300 people, was once the scene of a different milestone in 1964. In August of 1964, civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered as they attempted to organize voters during the "Freedom Summer."...

It is one thing for Obama to win in a general election, but when a small, mostly white town, in Mississippi, elects a black man as mayor, I know that we have entered the Twilight Zone. It is hard to imagine that the country has come this far in my lifetime.

In the late '80s/early '90s I did some consulting work for a paper mill in Pine Hill Alabama. I had spent time in Atlanta, Raleigh, Wickliffe, Paduca, and Moss Point doing contract work, but I was not prepared for the environs of Pine Hill. The only decent food to be had anywhere near that mill was at a diner at a crossroad on the way to Thomasville. The wait-staff and cashier were white and were the only employees in the dining area. From what I could see through the pass-through from the kitchen, the kitchen staff were all black. Never once in my several visits did a black person enter that air-conditioned dining area. There were lots of black people patronizing the place, but they ordered their lunches at a take-out window at the kitchen and ate their meals outside at picnic tables. I worked at that mill twice, both times for 2 weeks in late-July/early-August on boiler-automation projects and it was SOME hot outside. Still, the place was very strictly segregated and nobody but white customers ate in the dining area.

In the intervening year, I was doing some consulting work for Kone Wood in Atlanta (wood-yard upgrade for a mill in Panama City) and one weekend a pastor was fired for daring to invite a black family to the church picnic. The family showed up and were challenged by church members, and when they said that the pastor had invited them, the deacons convened a board meeting and fired the pastor on the spot.

It is one thing for Obama to win in a general election, but when a small, mostly white town, in Mississippi, elects a black man as mayor, I know that we have entered the Twilight Zone. It is hard to imagine that the country has come this far in my lifetime.

Mississippi elected Mike Espy to Congress in 1987. The state was 62% white in the 2000 census. I don't know about 1987, but I expect it was similar. Espy is black.

Mississippi elected Mike Espy to Congress in 1987. The state was 62% white in the 2000 census. I don't know about 1987, but I expect it was similar. Espy is black.

Since he was a Congressman, the demographics of the State are irrelevant. While credited with forging a black and white coalition, he was elected in a district that has a black majority. That is quite a bit different than getting elected in a small, mostly white town.

The demographics of the sprawling district, whose voting-age population is 58 percent black

I should have looked at the demographics for his district before I posted. What I thought was a story about a state willing to vote on the issues turns out to be just another story of sharply drawn color lines. But I still disagree with the implications of your post. You shouldn't have assumed that the entire state of Mississippi was bigotted just because of this single district. As the town of Philadelphia shows, the people of Mississippi are willing to put racial divides aside even if the second district is not.

Ivan never gave any indication that he was generalizing about the state based on the second district - he may not even have known about that (Espy) election when he wrote the OP. If anything, he indicated (in his response) that there was nothing in the 1987 result in the second district to dispel his (implied) assumption of widespread bigotry in the state (prevalent in earlier years).

Lack of support for the statement that the second district put aside racial divides can not lead to a conclusion that it did not put aside such divides (else you would also have to conclude that every single white Congressman ever elected from a white majority district was elected for racial reasons).

Even were the above assertion correct, the inference would not follow, given the significant time difference between 1987 and 2009.

Even were the above assertion correct, the inference would not follow, given the significant time difference between 1987 and 2009.

Why? Who does the second district send to congress now? But you may be right. I simply assumed that Ivan's prejudice against the people of Mississippi was based on the second district because it was he that pointed out the shameful voting record there. Do you think his prejudice is based on a general distaste for Americans?

The entire state of Mississippi loves to engage in blatant misrepresentations? I see an ugly pattern here.

I deleted that post. Given how you've been seeing all manner of thoughts that were never expressed, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw an poledancing elephant in that post (even now, after it's been deleted).